From the Principal

Welcome to IPS

EDUCATION WEEK OPEN MORNING - BUILDING CONNECTIONS

Wednesday 26th May from 9.30-am to 11.30am

This year Education Week runs from 23-29 May. The theme ‘Building Connections’ focuses on how the community can act as a support network, support students’ learning and development and enhance social inclusion.

We will be celebrating Education Week by having a COVID-Safe OPEN MORNING on Wednesday 26th May 2021, from 9.30am to 11.30am.  Parents are  welcome to visit classrooms and specialist areas.   There will be QR codes outside each classroom and visitors are request to sign in.  Please help us to keep our community safe by waiting outside classrooms if there are already 6 visitors in the room.

The orchestra will also be playing in the hall around 11am.  There will be a QR code outside the hall and inside,  limited seating.  We are asking parents to only enter the hall if there is a spare seat and stay to watch for a maximum of 15 minutes if there are people waiting to come in.  Thank you.

What's on in the Classrooms for Open Morning?

Foundation Classes

Will have a variety of activities:

Activity 1 - Making connections with the community

Students will read Dr Seus 'Oh the Places we will go’ Discuss different places we can go. They will talk about the journeys we go on in life. We are all different and special and take a different path with our feet.  Students will decorate a shoe with their favourite things or special traits to form a representation of themselves. They will then match a shoe with another person in their class. 

Activity 2 - Friends and Kindness

Students will read the ‘Kindness ‘story and make a list of kind words they might use to describe a friend. They will make a kindness cloud using kind words to form a rainbow in someone else's cloud.

Year 1

Year 1 students will be designing a ‘My favourite season’ poster, where they visually express their place in the wider community through studying the science of seasons.  This will be later used as the stimulus for their oral presentation. 

Year 2

Year 2 students will be continuing their learning about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture in Australia by making their own connections to place. They will be learning about some sacred Aboriginal sites across Australia, and using Google Maps to locate, label and draw these locations on their own giant Australia maps. Students will use teamwork, research, DLT and maths skills during this hands-on and interactive activity for Open Morning!

Year 3

Students will be starting the morning with a mindfulness meditation to help centre and ground the students ready for their day of learning. After this, they will be learning about the importance of reaching out and connecting to others with kindness and using their learning to write messages of kindness to share with others (known and unknown) in their community. Students will additionally be creating banners and posters to display around the school community to spread the ripple of kindness.

Year 4

Year 4 students are focusing on the Stolen Generation, Sorry Day, and recognising connections between communities and groups we belong to. We will explore rich literature including Sorry Day, Stolen Girl, Took the Children Away, and Fox. We're looking forward to seeing you!

Year 5

In Session 1 we will be conducting experiments for our Biological Science unit to observe the difference between webbed and toed feet by exploring how they work in water.

In Session 2 and 3, our Year 5 students will be in Specialist classes . Come along to see

5T in Music, then P.E

5R in P.E, then Music

5B in Art, then Italian

5M in Italian, then Art

Year 6

The year 6 students will be focusing their learning on the Department of Education's priority target of happy, healthy and resilient kids.   They are all participating in an Active Robotics program run jointly with Melbourne City which extends students physically with soccer and mentally with science and robotics.  Healthy, active kids with healthy, active brains.

Use the hashtag #edweekvic to get involved on social media.

Building Connections through our Working Bee

Great communities work together, play together and help each other out.  We are a great community and we recognise that people are busy but please can you spare an hour or two to help us prepare the ground prior to having the the portable classrooms removed and students getting their basketball court back.  This is such an exciting development but we can't do it alone so  please come along to our working bee on Sunday 23rd May.  It starts at 9am and finishes at 12 noon but you don't need to stay the whole time.  

Bring along something for morning tea, catch up and meet other families.  Students coming along to help out, get 100 house points each!  

Hope to see lots of you there to help us get our basketball court back!

CHESS Tournament

A group of dedicated IPS student chess players attended their second tournament this week and it was a highlight of their week!  Jim, the chess teacher is teaching the students not only how to play chess but how to conduct themselves in a contest.  

There was a big representation from IPS and all students were congratulated on their conduct.  Most of our students were independent and stayed at the tournament without parents and were trusted to look after themselves, know when their next game was on, support other games when theirs is complete, not disturb the rest of the host school and eat their lunch and clean up after themselves.  They congratulated their opponents at the end of each game and helped pack up at the end.   

Ivanhoe Primary school was one of 16 schools represented last week.  Our school came 4th overall, half of the participants were first time competitors.  What an amazing achievement! 

House Captains' Weekly - A student initiative

The House Captains  are aiming to visit a level each week as roving reporters and coming up with a newsworthy report that stems from our school values. They began with the Foundation team this week. Mr Pearce says they’ve developed this completely by themselves and  thinks it is a super initiative.  

Check out House Captains Weekly  in this issue of "Inside Ivanhoe".

Social Emotional Learning

Reminder that when playing any sport at playtimes, it must be non-contact. That means children shouldn't tackle each other.  We want to prevent serious injury so, parents, please can you remind your children?   

In conjuction, as a component of IPS’s Social Emotional Learning (SEL) program, students in Years 1 to 6 are required to access their wellbeing journal throughout the week to complete personal learning activities. Reflecting on appropriate behaviours should also inform some of this work.

Talk to your child about what appropriate behaviour looks like and strategies for managing emotions and conflict. While bullying is not a significant problem at IPS it is incumbent upon us all to teach our children and students how to recognise and deal with poor behaviour. We encourage you to talk to your child/children about the ideas and values outlined in the journal.

Please ensure your child has their wellbeing journal in their school bag or blue reader bag every day. 

The School Disco - Friday 4th June

The School Disco is coming up on Friday 4th of June so please save that date. 

It will be held in the hall and there will be two sessions.

Session 1 - 5.45pm - 7pm: Foundation to Grade 3

Session 2 - 7.15pm - 8.30pm: Grade 3 – Grade 6

*Grade 3 can choose either session (but not both)

All our PFA volunteers put in a lot of effort to give the kids a great night, and everyone attending (helpers and everyone just doing drop-off and pick-up) have a part to play in making it fun and stress-free for all. 

There will be more details coming, but right now we need your help to run the night.  Please read the School Disco page of this issue of "Inside Ivanhoe".

Helping in the F - 2 classrooms and other programs

Previously parents had to undertake a school provided parent training program to help in the classroom. Due to COVID-19 restrictions and changes to some of the ways in which our teaching practices are structured this program will not run in 2021.

We believe that parent assistance and shared expertise is very valuable so we are currently discussing how we might create and encourage these partnerships and have you involved in the school programs without risking health and safety.

Shortly an online / PowerPoint will replace the face-to-face training (for now) and will be made available once we have developed it.  Stay tuned for updates.

This is an exciting development that we look forward to putting into place as soon as possible!

ICAS - International Competitions and Assessments for Schools

Ivanhoe Primary School will once again be participating in the world-renowned ICAS Assessments this year. 

ICAS is designed to target students’ higher-order thinking and problem-solving skills in English, Mathematics, Science and Digital Technologies. At IPS, these four assessments will be offered in Years 3-6 only.

Each assessment celebrates students’ accomplishments by providing opportunities for recognition and development. Every student will receive a printed certificate and an online results report. Top performers will be eligible for medals and are invited to attend special award ceremonies to have their academic excellence publicly recognised. 

Please read the ICAS page of this issue of "Inside Ivanhoe" for details on how to enrol.

Biggest Morning Tea - Thursday 27th of May.

This year we are raising money for Cancer Council’s Biggest Morning Tea. Due to COVID -19 we are unable to sell food however, have decided to have a shared house lunch together on Thursday the 27th of May. Students can bring a gold coin donation and wear their house colours on this day. Thank you from Miss Mollie McCormick (organiser).

Our lovely Annette in the canteen has said that she will donate $1 of every lunch order ordered this day to our Cancer Council fundraiser. Each order will also receive a free chocolate chip cookie!

If you wish to donate to our cause you can do so via this link: https://www.biggestmorningtea.com.au/s/26861/31506

Thank you for your support.

Mark Kent

Principal